LAHORE, June 23: Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) has for the third time called retired penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas for the national training camp, although the full back opted to stay away from national duty despite being invited in the past.

Sohail who along with captain Waseem Ahmad had announced his retirement after Lahore’s Championship Trophy, saying he wanted to make room from youngsters, did not pay heed to calls from PHF for the Azlan Shah Cup in Kuala Lumpur last month. Instead he preferred to play league abroad.

While PHF failed to convince the two players to come out of retirement despite hectic efforts, at the same time it had been involved in giving contradictory statements by saying hockey would go on without the pair.

Although the full-back chose not to report at training camp, PHF claimed he had not been considered for selection for the Azlan Shah Cup as a “disciplinary action.”

In April, PHF had claimed that Sohail had come out of retirement and he would attend the national camp for Azlan Shah.

Striker Kashif Jawwad, who had been dropped for the Azlan Shah Cup claiming that he was not in a positive frame of mind after his father’s death, has been included in the list of probables.

PHF summoned 29 players for the camp starting at the Army Hockey Stadium, Rawalpindi starting from July 1 to prepare and finalise the team for the back-to-back tournaments in Hamburg, Germany, from Aug 12 to 14 and Rabobank Trophy in the Netherlands from Aug 15 to 21.

The camp will be held in two phases. The first phase will start from July 1 and will be completed on July 13, while second will be held from July 19 to Aug 9.

Probables:

PTCL: Salman Akbar, Ghazanfar Ali, Zubair, Khaliq, Attique, Saleem Khalid.

NBP: Zeeshan Ashraf, Adnan Maqsood, Waqas.

Wapda: Rehan Butt, Mudassir Ali Khan, Gohar Rasool, Mohammad Shabbir, Waqas Sharif.

HBL: Kashif Jawwad, Tariq Yameen.

ABL: Mohammad Saqlain.

Army: Dilawar Hussain, Javaid, Arshad.

Police: Shahid Waseem.

PAF: Zeeshan.

KESC: Mohammad Sami.

Customs: Ihsan Ullah, Imran Shah.

Steel Mills: Farhan Yousuf, Amir Shahzad.

PTV: Bilal.

Sui Southern Gas Company: Sohail Abbas.